A North East glass firm has been fined after the potential exposure of dangerous asbestos fibres to nearly 200 workers and visitors at its Consett premises.
The incident which was triggered by fire alarm installers when work at the firms Princess Building on Leadgate Industrial Estate started on July 12th 2011, which then went on to be investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.
Recommendations by the safety advisors for Consett-based Romag Ltd to barricade the contaminated area and arrange for emergency clean-up specialist were also believed to be ignored.
On 14 October this year the Consett Magistrates’ Court heard that without knowing, the two involved subcontractors drilled through an asbestos insulation panel while installing fire sensors, this all occurred after being informed that the building was free from asbestos.
Asbestos fibres were then spread around the premises as a domestic vacuum cleaner was used to clean up the debris and dust, and then later used in many other areas of the premises whilst sensors were being installed.
As conveyed to the court, the asbestos disturbance was discovered the following day; however action by Romag failed to take place until at least nine days after the incident occurred. This happened despite being instructed to lock down the area and arrange for an air clearance test.
A significant amount of contaminated material was discovered when the clean-up was organised, as a result of the delay in taking action, the HSE established that 180 workers and 16 visitors were put at risk of exposure to asbestos fibres.
The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £12,638 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Following the hearing, HSE Inspector Paul Miller said:
“Romag Ltd needlessly put at risk the health of nearly 200 people because they failed to identify the presence of asbestos before any work started and then compounded the failing by not acting quickly to clean the area properly.
“Any company that intends to do work to the fabric of a property built prior to the year 2000 must ensure that they have taken all reasonable steps to check whether asbestos is present before any work starts. That information must be then shared with anyone involved in the proposed work.”
For information and advice on asbestos safety, visit www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos
Reference
HSE
This entry was posted on Friday, October 18th, 2013 at 10:45 am and is filed under Asbestos News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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